Grassroots News & Progressive Views

On the Topic of the GOP and Ethics

It makes perfect sense to me that the House Republicans tried to secretly curtail the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics because, if you have no ethics, you damn sure don’t want some nosy person poking around documenting it.

And these GOP characters are as to ethical behavior as a sea turtle is to Death Valley. They’ve demonstrated for decades, which anyone can google, that they are not, by any means, on speaking terms with anything anywhere near synonymous with “ethics.” They are, in a word, ethic-less, if you will.

And their leader – The Donald – twittered some jive that supposedly caused these alleged “representatives” to back away from their devious deportment.

But it wasn’t the president-elect, arguably “The Most Ethically Challenged Human Being Alive,” a man who has written who knows how many checks, of millions of dollars, to cover his lack of ethics, who convinced his party’s elite to clean up their act.

No. These sneaky people put an end to their quest for “raw” power because “We the People, the “Average Joes and Janes” set their office phones on fire, according to the New York Times, “with angry missives from constituents amid a national uproar.”

Glory be, I think the real revolution has begun with more and more people realizing at their core, that these unsavory politicians are so caught up in their power, in the magnificence of themselves, only looking out for themselves, that they simply don’t care that so many of our collective hopes and dreams are fading away.

Oh, the beauty of it all is this kind of focused civic action illustrates just how much power we have when we roar, when we let ourselves soar, and do the right thing. This is how we have to be from here on out.

It’s so great that we’ve, apparently, finally had enough of a party’s political whims and are starting to let them know that there is no mandate whatsoever for their shenanigans.

This is a nice beginning and they should hear from us loudly and clearly, very soon, if they don’t start spending a great amount of their time creating jobs and making school costs reasonable and set about creating with what’s already there, better national health care, as we need improvement, not dismantling…

We need to be in their faces if they continue their cavalier attitudes towards science and the environment, towards global warming and climate change, literally toying with our survival as a species…

They need to see us with our picket signs and megaphones at the ready if they do nothing to keep an eye on all the emboldened white supremacists out and about, “Yee-Ha-ing” about making “America Great Again” like way back when people such as them had the upper hand over folks who were dark skinned…

They have to feel us coming their way if they don’t devote some energy to making life better in communities where so many people of color live; if they don’t acknowledge that “All Lives ‘Should’ Matter”…

They need to know that we won’t sit back doing nothing if they are going to make life miserable for Muslims and not recognize that their presence has enhanced our nation for hundreds of years; if they’re going to continue talking of building walls as though undocumented immigrants, our friends, and neighbors, haven’t contributed significantly, via a range of enterprises, some intellectual and some back breaking, to our economy and to our way of life, enriching us with the cultures they bring from their native countries…

And they have to feel the full brunt of our disdain regarding their plans to destroy Planned Parenthood. They have to be made to understand that we see such an evil act for what it is: an out and out attack against women as this organization represents everything the women’s movement has been about: Equality. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Nobody tells men what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Women should be treated and respected likewise.

It’s a new day. And it seems that direct action is the only way we citizens can be heard considering that the republicans, people who have no discernible ethics or civic-minded consciences, have the power in Washington D.C.

And it looks like we’re up for the struggle and the democrats in the House and Senate, and independents, who are pretty much reduced to raising their hands just to be heard, will have to join us, their constituents, in the streets.

Since we’re all facing some of the most pressing moral issues of our times, this is the most ethical thing for them to do. This is a struggle for good over evil, for being principled as opposed to being without moral values.

A better world can’t be created without people trusting each other enough to work together for the wellbeing of us all. That’s what ethics is all about.

In honor of Michelle Obama, when these poor excuses for congressmen and women go low we go high. Please know we will win by and by.

Anyone who is looking to get in on the fun should join the people of all ages at the Women’s March on January 21, at 10 a.m. at the Civic Center Plaza – in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington. Our democracy is alive and well.

Ernie McCray

I was raised in a loving and alive home, in a black neighborhood filled with colorful characters in Tucson, Arizona. Such an environment gave me a hint that life has to be grabbed by the tail as tight as a pimple on a mosquito's butt. With no BS and a whole lot of love. So, from those days to now I get up every morning set on making the world a better place. On my good foot*, and I hope my writing reflects that. *an old black expression

Comments

Phew! Thanks for this one, Ernie McCray. Now if we can only get the Democrats to argue for jobs, infrastructure spending, the funding of the regulatory agencies that can protect us against cons like Trump, for a recognition that no one should die cold, hungry and ill and that raw capital ought to be spent protecting human lives…

The contradiction in the Trump administration is that under Trump the Republicans will hasten the process of doing everything they can to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. At the same time most Trump voters just wanted a better paying job. That was their main consideration. This fault line between improving the middle class by creating better paying jobs and destroying the poor and lower middle class by transferring money away from them into the pockets of the rich needs to be exploited by Democrats, progressives and the Left in general. This should be the main issue; all other issues, while important, don’t speak to the entire American population like this one does.

Tomas has been sending your words along so thanks to him and to you for these words. Living as I do now in Richmond (Bay Area) in a predominantly black neighborhood your call rings out for all of us. We might be down but far from out and we will continue on together. Good to hear your voice again.

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The Safety Pin

Many Resistance Groups have stood up against the horrible events in Charlottesville and have reacted against the unacceptable response of our President. It is now our turn in North San Diego County to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in resistance to protest the white supremacist movement.